The Vampire's Seduction (6 page)

“Running away like a coward won’t save you,” a familiar voice said.

Reedrek.

A shudder of hatred and revulsion shot through me. Reflexively my fingers tightened on the shard of wood in my hand. I had to force myself toward the compartment door. This would be the true test of my mutated blood: whether I could face him without being distracted by fury and whether Reedrek would be able to sense my presence.

Then Algernon Rampsley spoke. “What delusion made you think you can rule the world? Do you think humans will ignore indiscriminate slaughter of their kind? Will the other clans overlook what you did in Amsterdam? I’d rather face the fires of hell than bow to you and your group of tyrants.”

I stepped through the door. I could see them both now—Reedrek seated comfortably on a chaise with Alger standing near the head of his open coffin.

“Really, well . . .” Reedrek lost his concentration for a moment, turning his attention to where I was invisibly watching. I could feel his power like a blind man’s hand searching for a hold. It passed over me and moved on. “In that case, hell is what I’ve brought you—without the fire.” Reedrek rose from the chair. “Do you know what I did to Lyone? I boxed him up and had him frozen in a block of ice before shipping him to the Arctic. He’s buried in a glacier like some hoary old woolly mammoth.” Then Reedrek smiled. “Six months of light, six months of darkness. He’ll sleep—for half a year at a time, growing weaker. But then he’ll wake up and spend the other half lying there in that terrible cold, knowing the long night can’t save him. And knowing he can’t save his offspring. They are mine to do with as I wish now. I’ve killed the two strongest males and set up two females in a dungeon in Amsterdam to serve my friends. You’d be sickened by what odd and depraved acts other vampires dream of doing when nothing is denied. Things only an immortal could survive.”

Reedrek gave Alger an arch look and rested one hand on the coffin. “I would send you to the moon in your own hand-carved time capsule if it wasn’t so much trouble. Perhaps later, after we have the American clans more in hand. For now, I believe I’ll sink you in the ocean to be the newest member of the fish clan. If you’re lucky, I’ll forget all about you. I won’t, however, forget
your
offspring.” Reedrek’s body moved faster than a thought. He shoved the lid of the coffin to one side and gripped Alger’s neck, lifting him like a child. It was obvious he intended to seal him inside. While I stood there helplessly, Alger fought for his life. The boat rocked as they battled from one side of the cabin to the other. But Reedrek was stronger, older. And Alger had always been a gentle vampire, if that was possible.

As I watched, Alger gave a terrific last ditch heave, breaking Reedrek’s grip and shoving him backward. “I’ll see you in hell,” he said as he raced right through me and the door. Reedrek flew after him, his feet barely touching the floor. I followed them upward and when I cleared the companionway hatch I watched in horror as Reedrek pulled out the very stake I held and killed Alger before he could find water and escape. I had already known he couldn’t get away, and now I knew what he’d avoided in forcing Reedrek to kill him.

I did not wish to stay to see him burn.

An insistent tapping jarred my senses and when I opened my eyes, I was staring at the moon in the mirror pond. The shells had returned to their box. I opened my hand and, aside from a dusting of ash, the stake had disappeared. I was left with the undeniable truth.

Alger was dead and Reedrek had apparently discovered my whereabouts. How many more of his cronies were on their way?

I looked toward the glass office door and saw Reyha standing just inside. She was watching me expectantly. I needed to find out how my sire had gotten on one of my boats. I also had to send the bad news about Alger to his people, not family per se, but his retainers and blood kin. No doubt they’d already felt a change of fortunes in the air. And I had to alert those closest to Amsterdam to mount a rescue of Lyone and his remaining offspring. I rose from the bench, feeling older than my five hundred years. After placing Lalee’s gift box and shells back in their cubby, I settled in front of my computers—my one concession to modern times.

Most humans are unaware that amidst the Anne Rice devotees and the vampire wannabes, actual vampires use the Net.

Stealthy yet familiar footsteps on the carpet announced Reyha’s approach. Leaning over the back of my chair, she snaked her arms around my neck and pressed her face into my hair. She snuffled once, as if she could smell the otherworldly energy I’d collected as I’d spun through time.

I ignored her and she seemed content to be close to me.

First I had to alert the clan. I wrote directly to Alger himself. Someone in his employ would be monitoring his mail.

Alger,

Shipment is lost. Best look to your safety. Please contact me as soon as possible.

Cuy

Only my very old acquaintances ever used my boyhood nickname. Alger had been one of the few vampires I considered a friend.

Next I entered the chat room for bloodygentry.com.

Do you have any contact with A.R.? I am searching for kindred.

I drew an immediate response.
A is missing?

He is not here. Need information.

Will get back to you.

Also, must send out abductors. Have closest to Amsterdam contact me immediately.

Will ASAP.

I still had allies and contacts in Europe, after all. And a pact to deny Reedrek and his kind any kind of support.

I picked up the telephone and dialed the shipping office I owned along the Irish coast. It would already be morning there.

The shipping manager, Regan Andrews, had no helpful information. According to him they’d loaded the cargo under the dark of the moon as usual. The warehouse and shipyard were under lockdown and surveillance until the
Alabaster
sailed.

“Any employees fired, or anyone who failed to come to work?” I asked.

“No. But there was—”

“What?”

“Well, I don’t see how it’s related, but one of our men, James Dugan, was killed in an accident the day after the ship sailed. He was riding his motorbike to work and got run down by an automobile.”

“Did you see his body?”

“Well, no. But I was told he was pretty wrecked.”

“Who told you that? Who saw him?”

“The constable, sir. They had to determine he was dead so he could be cremated.”

Cremated.

Rather than telling him my suspicions—that the worker had been compromised and killed—I told him to shut down the shipping operation. Until I found out just how much Reedrek knew, I couldn’t risk another vampire shipment. “Pay your workers for the month and send them home. Lock down the warehouse and keep both eyes open. Call me with word on anything unusual.”

“Yes, sir. You can count on me, sir.”

Reyha sighed and tightened her grip on my neck as I ended the phone connection. I patted her forearm. “I have to go pick up Jack, sweet.”

She snuggled closer, if that was possible, and sighed, “Stay . . .”

I levered her arms away and stood. As graceful as a member of the Bolshoi, she twirled and slipped an arm around me, snuggling against my side. Rather than hurt her feelings, I pulled her close and moved up the stairs. When I reached the door to the garage, I plucked the keys from the counter and called to Deylaud.

“No one is to be invited in while I’m gone,” I said. Not until I ascertained whether Reedrek was in Savannah. The thought gave me a twist of anger and, truth be told, left me uneasy. It would be painfully ironic if my wishful weakness of wanting to die had drawn one of the few beings who would happily accommodate me.

“No one comes in.” Deylaud nodded, then raised a hand beckoning to his sister. “Come, let him be,” he said.

After a slight hesitation, Reyha gave me an obligatory good-bye kiss on the cheek, then flounced away in disappointment. By the time she reached her brother she was smiling again. “Will you play with me instead of reading those horrid books?”

He slipped an arm around her shoulders. “All right.”

Deylaud held his place, staring at me, waiting for permission, I suppose.

I nodded and left them to their games.

Jack

I watched William get in my ’Vette with Richey, sorry to see him go. It’s hard to spook a vampire. I mean, I’m usually the spook
er,
not the spook
ee,
if you catch my drift. But I had to admit I was spooked right then.

I headed for the secret supply area in the cellar of William’s warehouse. That’s where we kept the emergency items our human helpers were better off not seeing—a selection of coffins, samples of earth from foreign lands, a refrigerator stocked with frozen human blood, and even hard-to-find ingredients for Melaphia’s charms and potions. I had to laugh when I stepped around a couple of “shake-’n’-bakes”—special bags designed to help forest firefighters avoid death from wildfires sweeping over them. William had wanted me to test one out to see if covering myself with it could keep me from catching fire in the daylight. I’d told him I’d get back to him on that.

I stuffed a duffel full of explosives along with wiring and an electronic detonation device and headed topside. I seldom got to use the demolition skills I’d honed many years ago as a moonshiner. (Blowing up stills ahead of revenuer raids was part of the job description.) Of course the art of making things go boom had changed through the years, but I managed to keep my skills current. You never knew when you might have to blow something up real good.

Tarney was preparing to tow the
Alabaster
out toward Lazarus Point using a small fishing boat. The human was good company but not much use if whatever had broken the lock on that hold came back. We’d searched the boat thoroughly, and whoever or whatever had done it was long gone.

So why were the hairs on the back of my neck standing up? And what was that smell? I was convinced it was more than the human carcass. More
feeling
than smell, it was impossible to describe. None of my five senses, as sharp as they were, could tell me what was crawling over me. It was suffocating, cloying, maddening, and . . . familiar. Not familiar as in something in your memory, but familiar as in something in your bones, something that’s part of you. That was what gave me the creeps.

As Tarney was busy steering us downriver, I went back to inspect the remains of that staked vamp. It’s not often I’m reminded that even though I’m technically immortal, I can still die. And unlike mortals, when I die, it’s a done deal. It’s “go straight to hell” for Jackie-boy. No passing Go. No collecting two hundred dollars.

I poked around in the ashes of my distant blood kin, searching for my usual dead-people connection. Nothing. Zip. Nada. Wherever he’d gone was dark and deep. Deeper than I could go . . . until my time came.

I shivered, wiped my hand on my pants, and went to the compartment where the coffin was. After filling it with explosives, finishing the wiring, and setting the detonation device, I took the empty duffel to the bridge to collect the material that William wanted. Tarney had collected the charts, ship’s log, and some other paperwork that he said William might need. I stuffed all of the papers and the GPS gizmo and the notebook computer into the duffel bag. My work done, I went belowdeck again to the guest quarters, as William called it, straight to the small bar across from the wired coffin. Did William know more than he was telling about what went on here? I tore into one of the remaining blood bags with my teeth and poured it into a tumbler, followed by a healthy splash of Dewar’s.

He was certainly taken off guard, that was clear. Whenever William was mad, I mean
really
pissed off, he actually levitated off the ground without ever realizing he was doing it. He did it ever so slightly when he first got to the boat. The humans didn’t notice, but I did. He was barely able to keep his temper under control. Something in William vibrated when he was that mad, and I could usually feel it from ten paces.

I downed the thick red cocktail and wiped my mouth on the back of my hand. William also wanted the surveillance tape from the hidden camera he kept in here. I had to shift the dead body to reach the compartment door for the tape. I hated the smell of dead food. As a newly minted vampire during the War of Northern Aggression, I sometimes had to follow William, walking right on top of the corpses of soldiers killed in earlier battles. It had always sickened me.

I don’t know what William expected to get from the tape since it erased itself every day. By the smell of that carcass, whatever happened had been at least a few days ago. William’s high-tech computer setup had the capability to monitor this cabin via satellite, but had he done it if he wasn’t expecting any trouble? I knew it was possible to capture video digitally on a computer. Had William done that? Or was the evidence of what had happened here gone for good?

Evidence. Why hadn’t I thought about that before? I grabbed the body jammed into the cabinet and hauled it out onto the floor in the little space in front of the empty coffin. Rigor mortis had come and gone and the body was fairly easy to handle, if nasty. I checked the dead crewman’s neck. Yep. There they were—two bite marks, deep and savage, widely spaced. Suddenly that faintly familiar reek I’d experienced on deck became stronger. It thrummed through me, nauseating me.

It smelled like . . . hell.

I stuffed the three remaining bags of blood (no sense wasting it) in my jacket pockets, threw the tape in the duffel with the other stuff, and left. The
Alabaster
was a beautiful boat, but I would be glad to see it blown to smithereens if whatever presence lingered here would sink into the sea forever along with it.

An hour later the sight of the
Alabaster
blowing into a zillion pieces in the distance didn’t give me the clean-slate feeling I’d hoped for. It looked cool, though. And the sound was thrilling even though it hurt my oversensitive ears. By the time the Coast Guard got wind of it, any debris would be scattered by the Gulf Stream from here to Nags Head.